About GA RFGA RF was established in 1992 on the basis of the combined holdings of the former Central State Archive of the October Revolution, Supreme Organs of State Power, and Organs of State Administration of the USSR—TsGAOR SSSR (1961–1992) and the Central State Archive of the RSFSR—TsGA RSFSR (1957–1992). It now has over 3,000 fonds (with over 5,5 million file units), dating from 1800 through 2005.
The most substantial part of GA RF holdings are those from the Soviet period, consisting of records of the highest organs of Soviet power and state administration on both All-Uunion and Russian Federation levels from the October Revolution through 1991 (with the exception of records held in other specialized federal-level state and agencies), which came to it from TsGAOR SSSR.
The prerevolutionary division of GA RF comprises records of the central highest-level judicial, penal, and political and criminal investigatory agencies in the Russian Empire, which came from the former Historico-Revolutionary Archive in Petrograd (transferred to Moscow in 1924). It also has many personal papers and collections of the Imperial family and court which came from the former New Romanov (Novoromanovskii) Archive. Most of the prerevolutionary division had earlier comprised the Central State Historical Archive in Moscow—TsGIAM (Tsentral'nyi gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv v g. Moskve) (absorbed by TsGAOR SSSR in 1961). There are also records of the Kingdom of Poland and records of agencies of the Provisional Goverment of 1917.
Personal papers represent a galaxy of well-known politicians, state functionaries, and trade-union leaders from both the prerevolutionary and Soviet periods, as well as those of the imperial family. There are also many collections from the former Russian Foreign Historical Archive in Prague (RZIA) and other émigré collections that were transferred to Moscow after World War II.
With the absorbtion of TsGA RSFSR (founded as a separate institution in 1958), GA RF now also holds many of the records of central agencies of the Russian Federation from the Soviet period.Chital'nyi zal no. 1[Reading Room no. 1 (Holdings from former TsGAOR SSSR)]read more